


Agendas

by Aaronlisa



Category: Dollhouse
Genre: Alternate Universe, Ficathon, Gen, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-25 22:27:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10773759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaronlisa/pseuds/Aaronlisa
Summary: It was amazingly simple how easy wanting to make a difference had turned her whole entire life upside down.





	Agendas

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the doll_ficathon for morganize who wanted: Adelle took a very particular interest in Caroline, and she's not letting it go now. This is set largely pre-series but it does have some spoilers for how Caroline became Echo.

Once upon a time, she had dreamed of being Emma Peel and she had wanted nothing better than to be just like the exotic secret agent. But she had grown up and the desire to be Emma Peel had transcended into doing something that would benefit the human race. In none of her innocent dreams of childhood had she ever dreamt of becoming something akin to a glorified madam with a stable full of zombies that she could have programmed in any way that her clients desired. Deep down, she knew that if her young self could see her now, the girl that dreamt of being Emma Peel would be horrified at that thought that she had become the enemy. 

* * *

When she had been a student at Freemont College, she had had started to become aware of the world around her, aware of the injustice and she had decided that she wanted to do something to change it. She wanted to help those that couldn’t help themselves and she wanted to save the world. Although she was never the type who thought that the world could be saved by the likes of herself, her boyfriend and their ragtag collection of friends, but she had thought that they could make a difference. And it might not be an end to the injustice and cruelty but a difference was a start. However it was amazingly simple how easy wanting to make a difference had turned her whole entire life upside down and caused her boyfriend’s death. 

* * *

From the moment that Adelle Dewitt first reviewed Caroline Farrell’s case file and watched the video from her attempt at stopping animal cruelty in the Rossum Lab, she could sense a kindred spirit in the younger woman. Twenty years after her own dreams of becoming Emma Peel had faded away and fifteen years after she realized that it didn’t matter what she did with her highly prestigious degree in science, Adelle found a young woman who truly believed that she could make a difference. 

If only Caroline hadn’t run afoul of the Rossum Lab, perhaps she would have come to Adelle’s attention differently and she might have been able to recruit her to join the management team. To recruit her and convince her that she could make a difference on the inside. Instead she’s faced with a choice of sending in her best active and having Caroline either terminated or brought in. 

For three months, she merely observes the situation and ignores the pressing interoffice memos from her superiors demanding that she decide on a course of action. For a while, Adelle dreams that if she delays just long enough Caroline can break free of the net that the Dollhouse already has in place, just waiting for Adelle to signal for it to tighten around her until she’s completely ensnared in it. 

* * *

She’s been on the run for sometime now, ever since Leo was killed when they were escaping the lab. Caroline knows that’s she innocent but she knows that whatever corporation or organization really controls the Rossum Lab has enough power to ensure that she’ll never get a fair trial no matter what she does. Her dreams of wanting to make a difference have quickly faded away into just surviving the nightmare that she can’t seem to wake up from. Her friends that had supported her and Leo for uncovering the injustice going on at Rossum Lab have disappeared and Caroline knows she can’t trust them. Just like she knows that she can’t go home, not after the one phone call she made to her parents and her mother had insisted that she turn herself into the authorities. 

So she ends up spending her time in one cheap motel after another trying to find out everything that she can about Rossum Lab and the shadowy organization that seems to fund it. When her money runs out and she still doesn’t have enough to go to the police or even the FBI, she starts spending her time on the streets staying in shelters. Three months later, she meets a girl by the name of Emma in one of the shelters. At first, she’s suspicious of her, but when Emma is hassled by some jerk on the streets that seems to think that any pretty girl walking by herself along Sunset Strip is a prostitute, they form a fast friendship. 

It takes Emma a while before she tells Caroline her story about how she ended up on the street and it seems eerily familiar to Caroline. It reminds her of her own story, except without the murder of a boyfriend. There’s a shadowy organization that’s in charge of a lab at UCLA that’s conducting innocuous tests on a group of undergrad students. No one seems to think anything of it, until some of the subjects just drop out of school. Emma wouldn’t have thought anything of until her roommate just ups and disappears. The roommate didn’t even pack up her belongings. The official story was that she had dropped out due to stress but Emma didn’t believe it. She did a bit of investigating and found out the tests weren’t as harmless as they appeared. 

Similar to Caroline, she had gotten ensnared in a net that was much larger than she had suspected and so she had ran. Emma’s story had caused Caroline to break down and tell her own story. From there, the two vowed that they’d do everything to clear Caroline’s name and bring down the organization that was responsible for Leo’s murder and Emma’s roommate’s disappearance. 

Two weeks later, Caroline was picked up. 

* * *

For a brief period of time, Adelle had toyed with the idea of terminating Caroline. There’s a part of her that doesn’t want to see Caroline turned into the zombies that she controls. Yet she dismisses this idea and eventually she sends out Whiskey dressed up as Emma, a good little girl who ran afoul of something much more sinister than she had imagined. And just as she had believed, Whiskey as Emma is the perfect bait to bring in Caroline. The net tightens around Caroline without the young woman even realizing it. 

When she has sent in her team to extract Caroline, she realizes how attached she’s become to Caroline. For a very brief time, she entertains the thought of sending Caroline to one of the other Dollhouses but in the end she decides against. There have been a few cases of the actives entering management after their five year tenure. And she decides that she wants Caroline in the Dollhouse because she instinctively knows that Caroline will be the one to change it from a glorified brothel into something better. 

* * *

 _You ever try and clean an actual slate? You always see what was on it before._

Topher is surprised when Adelle is present for when he transforms Caroline Farrell into Echo. Normally the boss is never present for the wipes unless there’s a reason to be and he can’t quite figure out why she would need to be present for this one. As far as he can tell it’s a simple case of someone who ran afoul of the parent organization and who’s been _recruited_ into the organization with the lure of money and a clean record. 

He doesn’t express anything but he does make sure that he’s very thorough and precise. There’s something scary about Adelle DeWitt and if she’s this interested in Caroline he just knows that if he makes a mistake, it’ll be more than just his job on the line. When he’s finished with Caroline, who’s now become sweet and innocent Echo, he’s a bit taken aback when Adelle demands that he completely erases the Emma character that he had created to reel Caroline in. Normally they always keep back ups of sort but Adelle wants everything wiped clean. Topher complies because it’s his job and when Adelle is satisfied that he’s done, he watches as she icily walks back up to her ivory tower with a copy of Caroline’s personality. 

When Adelle keeps requesting to be personally informed on everything to do with Echo, he doesn’t question it, he just does what she regally commands. Later on, he’ll try to rationalize it that Adelle had seen a spark in Echo that would make her become the best active that they have. What he doesn’t tell Adelle is that Echo’s not like the other dolls in their house made of cards. He can’t quite tell what it is but when he runs the diagnostics on her imprints after her missions, he notices little things, very tiny things in fact, that worry him. 

He notices things that shouldn’t be happening, things that show him that Echo is retaining parts of her imprints. Tiny little fragments that shouldn’t be retained after being wiped repeatedly and he doesn’t know how to approach Adelle with this, especially not when he’s fairly certain that Adelle’s already well aware of it. There’s nothing that escapes her at the Dollhouse and Topher figures that if Adelle hasn’t brought it to his attention, he’s not about to make a mountain out of a mole hole. And instead he does what he does best: he turns a blind eye while ensuring that if anything happens to Adelle, his own hide will be safe. 

**END**


End file.
